David Raymond Brown — a producer of feature films “The Apprentice,” “The Fallout” and “After the Wedding” — was arrested by federal officials in South Carolina on Wednesday and indicted on 21 counts of wire fraud, money laundering and identity theft.
Brown, who has also been known as David Brown Levy and David Addison Brown, faces a sentence of up to 300 years in prison if found guilty, and did not enter a plea during his first court appearance. He will be transferred to California for arraignment.
Brown has been formally charged with nine counts of wire fraud, 10 counts of transactional money laundering and two counts of aggravated identity theft, according to court documents reviewed by TheWrap. The arrest comes after years of allegations to that effect (including one instance where Brown is accused of forging Kevin Spacey’s signature).
Brown is accused of using money siphoned via phony investment deals to purchase a 2025 Mercedes Benz G-Wagon and several Teslas — including a 2024 Cybertruck, a 2024 Model X and a 2025 Model Y — among other lavish purchases.
Over the course of several years from December 2021 to August 2025, Brown allegedly used several methods to systematically defraud his victims, including misappropriating the funds of several film companies by transferring money from the company’s account to one he controlled.
To cover up the scheme, Brown had the film companies transfer funds to Hollywood Covid Testing LLC, a company he operated but that never provided any such testing services.
Brown also allegedly told a person identified only as “Victim 1” he would pool money into mutual real estate investments as part of a house-flipping enterprise, but actually took money from Victim 1.
A second person, identified only as “Victim 2,” was convinced to send money to a second company controlled by Brown, Film Holdings Capital. Those funds were used to fund other film projects, and Brown also allegedly spent a portion of the money from Victim 2 on his personal pursuits and expenses.
In addition to several vehicles mentioned above, Brown used the money to pay for surrogacy services, private school tuition, and to build a pool at his home. He also allegedly used the money from his victims to make payments to his own family members.
Brown allegedly deployed the use of a third party to help convince his victims Film Holdings Capital was a legitimate film financing business by having them sign backdated loan documents and withholding employee health insurance payments from payroll.
If convicted on all charges, Brown faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud count, up to 10 years in federal prison for each money laundering count, and a mandatory two-year consecutive prison sentence for each aggravated identity theft count.
